Hackathon registration is now closed. To submit a project on DevPost, you'll be asked for your Order Confirmation number on your Hackathon entry from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Present your game to a panel of judges and a public audience for a chance to win the grand prize ($2,000), the People’s Choice award ($500), or both.

Challenge Details:

Many museum visitors wonder where to start their visit and how to find art they like. Your challenge? Create a game or guide that offers them a fun personalized experience in our galleries. See the full prompt on our GitHub page here. Teams must have two to six members. Bring a team or form one at the kickoff. You must be in the Philadelphia area to participate.

Your Registration Includes:

Museum membership for one year

Acess to wayfinding technology in our galleries and public spaces

Collections data for works on view

Hacklabs, which include:

Space to brainstorm and create

Food and drinks

Staff and guests to help guide your vision

Tours with resident experts, including curators, Museum guides, and educators

Tutorials and feedback

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Hackathon KickoffWednesday, April 4, 6:30 p.m. Mix and mingle with other teams as we reveal the project prompt.

HacklabsWednesdays, April 11, 18 & 25; May 2 & 9, 5:00–8:30 p.m. Strategize, build, and test in the galleries with a helping hand from Museum staff and special guests. We’ll provide pizza to keep you going.

Preliminary JudgingWednesday, May 16, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Teams present their projects for preliminary judging. Reception to follow. Five finalist teams will be announced on May 17.

Closing Event—Final Friday: Hack the MuseumFriday, May 25, 5:00–8:45 p.m. Judges announce winners in this evening devoted to tech, talks, and tunes. First, finalists present their apps for their chance to receive the Grand Prize ($2000), while runners-up present for a chance to win the People’s Choice Award ($500). After confetti and champagne, dance it out with other teams and visitors.

This is the Dina Wind Power of Art Hackathon, sponsored by the Wind Foundation.

Eligibility

Employees of the Philadelphia Museum of Art are not eligible.

You must purchase a hackathon entry in order to be eligible to win. To submit a project on DevPost, you will be asked for your Order Confirmation number on your Hackathon entry from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Requirements

1. Team members must purchase a hackathon entry from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in order to be eligible to win.

2. You must be in the Philadelphia area to participate. There are several in-person events and attendance is an essential part of your participation.

3. Teams must have two to six members. One person teams are not allowed. You may bring your team or form one at the kickoff.

4. Register your team on DevPost by April 11.

5. Bring your own laptop. We’ll provide work tables at the Hacklabs.

6. Use the Museum dataset and wayfinding tools given at Kickoff, April 4. Access the Hackathon API at our GitHub here.

7. Due May 9, 10 p.m.: Submit a video (maximum 2 minutes) that demonstrates the app in use. Do not make a promotional-style sales pitch. Do include stills and/or video screen grab captures. Write a description of the app for DevPost and choose a main image to represent your project.

8. Due May 9, 10 p.m.: Submit source code of your app to your GitHub account and send us a link to it.

9. May 16, 6:00-8:00 p.m.: At least two team members must be present to represent you at Preliminary Judging. You will have 5 minutes to answer the judge's questions about your submission.

10. May 25, 6:00-7:00 p.m.: Finalist teams must demonstrate their app in two different galleries for Final Judging.

11. May 25, 6:00-7:00 p.m.: Runner Up teams can compete for the People's Choice Award by demonstrating their apps in the Great Stair Hall.

We do ask for source code for the judges to review. While we encourage participants to consider open source, it is not required- all files uploaded will only be seen by the judges and hackathon managers. We ask for source code for review, not ownership, as stated in the IP agreement, here.

How to enter

Hackathon registration is now closed. To submit a project on DevPost, you'll be asked for your Order Confirmation number on your Hackathon entry from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Register on DevPost, create a project, and add your teammates.

Spend April with your team to build a game that wows the judges and the public. Museum staff will be available in person and online at specific times- further information will be shared with participants.

Submit a write up of your project, along with screen shots and a 2 minute video demo to DevPost and submit a working demo app of your project on our Github here by 10PM EDT, May 9.

May the best game win!

Judges

Youngmoo KimDirector of the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University. Youngmoo’s research group, MET-lab, focuses on the machine understanding of audio.

Corinne WarnshuisExecutive Director, Girl Develop It, a nonprofit organization that exists to provide opportunities for women to learn web and software development. Corinne is a passionate advocate for community-centered movements and their power to change the world.

Brett TopcheCo-founder, Red & Blue Ventures. Brett is a seed-stage investor in technology and technology-enabled companies from the University of Pennsylvania ecosystem and has a decade and a half of venture capital and private equity experience.

Andrew Cameron ZahnFounder, CRUXSpace. Andrew is a New Media artist and designer and is the founder of Philadelphia’s only New Media Art gallery, CRUXSpace. He also runs Cloud Shop Studios, a boutique web design company.

Judging Criteria

Hackathon Full Prompt:
Use PMA resources & crowd-contributed data to create a game/guide leading visitors to discover objects in an engaging way. Your solution should grow with use by employing (for example) machine learning, recommendation systems, and/or crowd-sourcing.

1. TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY
Is it technically interesting or difficult? Is it just using the provided tools, or have you created or integrated other solutions? Are visitors prompted to contribute data to define their interests? Does it surmount real technical challenges

2. ORIGINALITY
Is it more than just another generic app or museum guide? Does it do something novel or take a fresh approach to the problem? Is the technology fueling the application’s growth used imaginatively and intelligently?

3. POLISH
Is it usable in its current state? Is the user experience smooth? Does everything work? Is it well designed? How complete is it?

4. USEFULNESS
Is it practical? Something people would really use? Does it solve the problem of where to start a visit and how to find objects? Does it help to understand art and find a connection to it? Does it work for all database objects? Is it location-aware?

5. ENGAGEMENT
How does it engage and motivate users? Does it present a thoughtful approach to using crowd contributions? Does it foster relationships between visitors and the collection while enhancing the connections between objects?